Customer Reviews

Criminal Law: Examples and Explanations (Examples & Explanations Series)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book provides a cursory overview of criminal law at best. If you're a fan of Glannon, don't get this book. You'll be disappointed. For example, while courts and scholars debate the effectiveness of distinguishing between general and specific intent crimes, it is probably something you're going to have to learn. This book gives it one page. Worse than that is that the authors literally spend more time saying that the distinction is worthless than they do on helping you understand the difference. In fact, they don't actually try to define either; they provides a couple of mere examples of each.

This is just an example of the problems with this book. Trust me, you'd be better off skimming a treatise.

This book is not in the same league as other E&E books. It is not very clear, the charts are confusing and some parts of the book give downright wrong information. If you have a teacher who emphasizes the MPC, this book is a total waste. Otherwise, it's a total mess. Do NOT use this book to teach yourself the course because some of the information is wrong and unless you already know the material well enough to pick out the bad information, you will be screwing yourself. I would not recommend this to anyone.

I own all of the E&Es from the classes I have taken so far and find them all useful, except this one.

I felt like this author tried too hard to prove how tricky and smart he was. A lot of the examples gave "gotcha!" explanations that most professors would never require students to know. I would have preferred questions that required me to go through the elements in a more normal way and look for broader problems in the fact patterns, not weird exceptions.

Overall, this book made me paranoid looking for hidden issues that weren't in my professor's problems. Luckily I realized this before my final and was able to find other practice problems/answers that actually helped me.

I have analyzed a lot about the way these reviews work. It is important to pay attention to the review date, and the edition release up top.

You'll find reviews of older editions on newer editions pages which isn't fair.

All-in-all the newer editions are incredible. It is worth giving them a shot. I swear people go into these with the wrong attitudes--they want it all on a silver platter. If you want to be lazy and skip the learning that evovles through outlining yourself go ahead and get Emanuels. However if you like to work through problems, deepen your understanding, and practice, then go for these.

That's not to say Emanuels isn't any good, but I wouldn't use it for anything other than making sure all my ducks were in a row.

Unlike most other Examples & Explanations Series, this one is one of the worst I have read. Authors waste too much time on history of criminal law and MPC, and very little time explaining the law. Common law and MPC are not distinguished and characterized well, and no clear conclusions of law are given. The example are very plane, without exploring the variety and complexity of real-life problems. Unbelievably, only 35 pages are spent on homicide, the most common and complex problem in criminal law, and the examples and explanations for homicide are terrible.

I have never been compelled to write a review for anything on amazon before, and I've bought dozens if not hundreds of items here. But I feel compelled to write one for this book.

I am a 1L law student studying for my 2nd semester's exams. I have used other E&E's for many other classes and found them very helpful and clear - in short, excellent summaries of the material.

However, this book is TERRIBLE. I can not stress this enough. It is very, very unclear, very very INCOMPLETE, filled with useless information, neglecting of important information, and just very unhelpful. It does a terrible job.

Read the other reviews and stay away from this. There have got to be much better study guides out there...

This is not a bad book for what it purports to be: a companion volume to a criminal law course. If you're consulting it for quick explanations of things you've covered elsewhere and just need some clarification on, it does the job (though, to be fair, this is true of any of dozens of similar books, all available on Amazon).

That said, Crim. isn't the most complicated subject you'll face in law school (it's probably one of the easiest during the first year). If you're seeking out study aids, you're probably making up for a shoddy professor or cramming for an exam. This book isn't much good in either instance.

This book is unlike other volumes from the E&E series that I've used (and found very helpful) in that it really fails to stand on its own. Explanations are very often weak (and too many require you to go searching through chapters a hundred pages back). Tables that attempt to provide handy comparisons of MPC and common law provisions are slapped together and hard to follow (when you've done the studying and know what they're trying to convey, it's particularly striking how badly they fail at it. It's like borrowing notes from a classmate and trying to make sense of their personal shorthand). While the book does a nice job of referencing case law (which may or may not be in your particular casebook) it's less consistent on MPC sections-- explanations are to be accepted without a point of reference, leaving exam takers vulnerable to professors who will (as law professors ALWAYS do) twist the facts beyond the obvious application of the rule.

I was required to buy this book for my criminal law class (which should have told me something about my teacher). I find that this book really just restates the same thing the casebook says, but without including cases. I want plain language explanation and law.

I do not recommend this book. I did try Dressler's Understanding Crim Law, and really like it.

The Examples and Explanations series is usually very helpful for my studying. However, this particular book has inaccuracies, and the explanations are difficult to understand. I do not recommend buying this book for anything but sample questions. Don't rely on the authors for the answers to those questions.

That said, do check out the other E&E books - they're great.

This book is an excellent tool for One-L's (first year law students) taking Criminal Law classes. The book begins with a thumbnail discussion on the major schools of thought of the justification of punishment; the authors are retributivist. A great handling of Actus Reus (the criminal act) and all-important Mens Rea (the guilty mind) proceed the substantive crimes (e.g. homicide, rape, and theft) and defenses. This book is most useful for law students and a perfect supplement to the casebook "Crimes and Punishment: Cases, Materials, and Readings in Criminal Law" by Singer and Martin R. Gardner. This book is not in depth enough to read solely for its philosophical discussions, but does pose some good questions. Its main function is to teach the foundations of Criminal Law not specific to any jurisdiction within the US.

The book covers the foundations of the criminal law and the comparative approach balances the MPC (Model Penal Code) with the Common Law.! The layout of the book is easy to follow and learn from (even outline.)

Each section ends with Example questions and Explanations. These section endings are indispensable as opportunities for the reader to apply the newly learned rules to new situations.

The book contains several charts that summarize and compare (MPC to Common Law) a section of law. No Pictures are included, and it does not need them.